A solid showing at next week's zone championships will hopefully pay off with several provincial championship berths for the Elphinstone Cougars wrestling team.
The Cougars are coming off a good showing at the North Shore championships in which 10 wrestlers competed including two wrestlers from Chatelech who joined their Coast rivals for the trip to the mainland.
Chat's Lindsey McDonald finished second in her weight class and the high placing was a first for Chat in quite some time.
"It was nice to see her compete and great to have some kids from Chat come and be a part of our team," said Elphi coach Clint Fox.
Elphi Grade 8 wrestler Jemma Newton Mason finished third in 47 kg, Breanna Kittson was second, Grade 9 wrestler Travis Hodgson won his weight class while senior wrestler Connor Richey was also second in his weight class.
"For Connor it was one of those matches that he came back in and was in a good position to win, but I think he over wrestled a bit and put himself in a bad position and he ended up losing, which is unfortunate," said Fox. "I look at it though as a super, character building match. He went out and worked hard and he'll be stronger for the experience the next time out."
While Fox said he was happy with the results, he feels it could have been better.
"After the Rudolph Rumble in December I felt, on paper, that we would have a team that was well up there and could compete with the top teams on the North Shore," said Fox. "But we took a small team to the North Shore's and that hurt us in the overall results. Last week was a tough one for us with exams and the flu, so it was not the best result that I think we could have achieved."
But Fox is confident that the Cougars will have a strong team at the zones and is looking for at least five to qualify for the provincials, set for the last weekend of the month at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby.
"I had 20 kids at practice Tuesday night, so I'm hoping to take all of them to the zones," he said. "The North Shore competition is very tough, but I know we have the talent to compete. If everyone wrestles up to their capabilities, I'm confident we can finish the season very strong."
